Shauna + Tim + 2 Bunnies

Monday, November 21, 2011

Pear Kale Smoothie

I stole this smoothie recipe from a friend and fellow vegan over at Lindsay Loves Veggies, and it is seriously to most delicious smoothie I've ever had. I literally made this every single afternoon this week, and I'm normally way too lazy to make smoothies!! It's chock full of fresh nutrients and good-for-you love, but you're too busy loving the flavor combo to even care about the healthiness of the drink! This recipe makes enough for two full drinking glasses, so cut it in half if you aren't planning on drowning yourself in pear delightful-ness!

I also took a cue from Pinterest and tried to freeze some to make quickly on following mornings, but of course I was too lazy to even blend a frozen smoothie block with water! More on my freezing process below.

I changed a few things around based on what I already had in the house, and here's the version I followed:

Ingredients

1 cup green grapes

2 large mandarin oranges

1/2 pear

1 banana

1 cup kale

1 almost full scoop vanilla protein powder

1 almost full scoop ground flax seed (using the protein powder scoop)

1/2-1 cup ice, depending on personal preference

Blend all the ingredients minus the ice, and then add 1/2 cup of ice, blending in more if you want the smoothie colder.

I saw this idea from Muffin Tin Mania to pre-make a smoothie minus the liquid ingredients so that you can just pop them into the blender with some water, almond milk, coconut milk, etc. this next morning. The recipe I made above was enough to try out this technique with four smoothie cups in addition to a nice big serving of smoothie before dinner.

All I did was pour the smoothie into a muffin tin, allow to freeze, and then pop them out and seal in a zip lock bag. The next morning, I blended two cups with some water. It turned out OK, but next time I think that I'll try using orange juice instead of water, because the smoothie was a bit to watery. The idea itself was brilliant though; I'm just always running too late to make smoothies in the morning! But that's OK, after work smoothies are just as delicious!